Business Strategist for Solopreneurs
I’m up to some new things, so I won’t be posting here as much. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s going on!
Here is the link I mention in the video (updated to new website name):
Find the Bullet Journal website here: bulletjournal.com
(Prefer to read in stead of watch? Scroll down below the video player for the notes.)
Earlier this year, I gave my email subscribers the chance to ask me anything they wanted to about their business. In this video, I talk about the trap of learning too much and not implementing enough. Learning new skills to build your business is a great thing to do, but you have to implement what you learn for it to help your business grow. Learning without implementation does not help your business. This is Segment #8 in the Ask Me Anything series. You can find the entire series on my blog or YouTube Channel under Ask Me Anything. www.michelechristensen.com
(Note the event link I mentioned around the [2:00] minute mark does not show up on some views of this blog post. Here is the link: www.michelechristensen.com/blbp)
If you prefer to read instead of watch, here are the notes for this video:
One of my sales mentors Lisa Sasevich is doing a brand new training on one of her specialties, 6-figure teleseminars and webinars! Even though I’ve worked with Lisa before, I still listen to all her trainings because they are so great! Tune in tomorrow (Thursday) to see her reveal her secrets!
Click here for information:
5 Secrets for 6-figure Teleseminar and Webinar Sales Success
If you are reading this after Thursday, click the link to see if she still has the replay up.
If you’ve been reading my blog up until now, you may notice a change in the comments section. I’m now using Facebook comments instead of the built-in comments feature in WordPress. While this may not be a major change for my site visitors, I did want to use this decision as a case study to show how I think solopreneurs should think through things.
First, I was displeased with the way comments were working. Even with a spam catcher plugin, I still got several hundred spam comments for every real comment. Many of them were obviously spam, but I still had to at least scan them to make sure I didn’t throw away any gold. This took several minutes at least a few times per week, and this adds no value to my business. This year, my 6th in business, I’m working on streamlining and dropping things that don’t work. I’ve ditched all assumptions and am even more active with testing everything to see if it works for me. So, with that attitude, I decided to rethink if I even wanted comments at all.
After researching the various options, I decided to try Facebook comments. My research suggest that this will cut down on spam and increase the quality of comments. I also like that people can easily share their comment with their Facebook connections. Overall, it’s gotten harder to to get people to take the time to comment and if that’s the case I’d rather have them share my content to start a conversation.
I hope the new comment plan works well. If I make another change, I’ll detail that decision in a later post.
I want to straighten out some confusion I hear often. A one-person business is a viable, sustainable, long-term business model. Not everyone wants to have a bigger operation and not everyone wants to supervise a staff. Myself, and many other people love this business model, and while I do consider myself a solopreneur I do love to collaborate with others. I sometimes get the impression that people who are not solopreneurs think that being a one-person operation is just a temporary situation until the business grows. I intend to stay solo for the foreseeable future, and lots of people I work with do as well.
Many times, when I tell people I work with 1-person or solopreneur businesses, they often ask “You mean like startups?” I usually explain that typically, startups are looking to grow and make money for their founders or to be purchased by a bigger company. Some solopreneurs may be startups – there are probably some one-person businesses looking to grow and expand. However, there are a lot of people who are most content with the small, simple model of being a solopreneur. We can hire outsourced help when needed, but mostly the business thrives on us and our work alone.
I love being a solopreneur, and I love working with solopreneurs. I love the freedom, the flexibility and the autonomy. I also love to learn, so I like that a big part of my business is learning to tackle various parts of the operations. Being a solopreneur isn’t for everyone, but if you do find yourself drawn to this life you might just love it.
Make no mistake, it is challenging to run a solopreneur business. Aside from having a product or service that people want to buy, you have to be a business generalist and know a least a little bit about everything in your business aside from what you do for customers. There is a lot to do in order to keep a business running, and you have to do it all and do the work you get paid for. This is where automation can help. I believe that solopreneurs should automate everything they can before hiring help. Automation is cheaper, mistake free and can run 24/7 for you once you set it up. What are some areas of your business you can automate? How about appointment scheduling, social media, email sorting, computer backups and monitoring your industry to start with? I cover these 5 areas plus 4 more and 3 bonus automation-related strategies (12 areas in total) in my Kindle book “The Solopreneur’s Success Strategy: Automate Your Grunt Work.” This book has a 5-star rating and some of the comments include “Very helpful,” “No fluff,” and “Rich treasure chest of productivity.” So yes, you can be a solopreneur as a permanent way of doing business. However, I strongly recommend that you automate all the annoying little tasks that you can so you can focus more on what you love. Check out the book at the link below: The Solopreneur’s Success Strategy: Automate Your Grunt Work
Don’t have a Kindle device? You can still read this book with a free app for your smartphone or tablet or with the free Kindle desktop reader.
Most of the time, I write strictly about solopreneur businesses, but sometimes I write about topics that aren’t all about business. Today is the first of a series of not-strictly-business posts about a new experiment I’m participating in called Happify.
Happify is a new website created to help people feel more happy. I was invited to be a pioneer member, and decided to jump in for several reasons:
I’ve been a member for 3 days now, and here’s how it’s gone so far.
The sign-up process was smooth. It was about the same as it is for most sites. One of my favorite parts was writing my bio – instead of the usual bio, I was asked to write a bit about what makes me happy. I wanted to use all the available space, so I had to think of lots of things. This led me to including things I wouldn’t normally have thought to include. An example is that I included my potential, and I’ve never thought of that as a reason to be happy but having the potential to do lots of different things and to be successful is something to be happy about.
I wasn’t crazy about some of the journaling exercises, such as “Write down things you are grateful for.” Been there, done that, not original. Even though the effectiveness of this practice may be supported by the evidence, I simply didn’t enjoy doing it. I actually kept a gratitude journal for several years where I wrote down at least 3 things I was grateful for every night. I eventually gave the practice up because I noticed no change from it. The good thing is the site lets you rate how much you enjoyed the activity, which I hope will allow for greater customization later.
One of the next activities was poorly designed, but I still got a benefit from it. It was supposed to build your ability to savor, and the idea was to look at a picture and find objects in the picture. Some of the objects were easy to spot, others not so much. I’ve thought about how to describe why I think it was poorly designed, but I’m unable to do do without spoiling it for anyone else who might want to do the exercise. In general, I place a high value on (and derive much enjoyment from) precision, logic and clear communication and this exercise was lacking in those areas which I think is poor design.
The other reason I didn’t like it was that I simply don’t enjoy this kind of activity so it was hard to savor it. That’s where I actually got the benefit from – getting clear on the idea that I don’t enjoy all activities equally and I only savor the ones I do like. If I’m going through the mail, that’s just a mundane chore of adult life. Yes, I can make it as nice as possible by giving myself a good place to work, nice music and maybe something nice to drink but in the end it’s still not something to savor. It’s something to plow through so I can get to something I want to savor and enjoy. A different example is coffee. I love coffee and almost always savor it when I have it, which is daily. I don’t even have to think about it. So what I learned is to be clear on whether or not an activity is worth savoring and then act accordingly.
Where the site got it right on the topic of savoring is with some of the other activities and questions on savoring. I liked having to think about what activity in my daily life I was going to savor and then write about it. It was a great way to draw attention to something I hadn’t thought of savoring before and now I realize how much I like it.
This site has several different tracks so you can pick what is most relevant to you and a lot of the activities have some choice too. You can interact with others by following them, sharing your activities or posting to forums.
So, I’ll check back in a few days and let you know how it’s going. So far, I like it. I feel like it’s only been a few minutes (under an hour total) investment of my time and that I have made a few thought changes that make me happier. That’s a good return on investment.
PS – As of right now, I have 5 invitations to test the site. Email me if you want one.
In the last year, I’ve begun using the concept of an inner circle for my business. It’s been a huge contributor to the success I’ve had this year so I wanted to share the idea with you.
As solopreneurs, we tend to work mostly alone. This is true even if you have outsourced help, partner with others sometimes or attend live events. Couple that with working from home (also mostly alone), and you’ve got a recipe for isolation in your business.
What’s the problem with working alone? Well, nothing if you do it right. I happen to love the solopreneur model and think it can be a good fit for a lot of people. The problem is when you try to work without ever having anyone to run things by before you do them. You might spend way too much time on an unworkable idea that one other pair of eyes could have spotted. The opposite can also happen – you might dismiss a great idea. It’s not necessary to discuss every move you make, but having a sounding board for the big ideas is a big help.
There are lots of ways to make sure you don’t overdo it on working alone, and one of those ways is to create an inner circle for yourself. If you ever had a regular job, you had coworkers. In a startup or non-profit, you might have a board of directors. Your inner circle a close group of advisers you create for yourself to fill the role your coworkers or board might play.
You inner circle should push, challenge, uplift and question you. They help you get unstuck. They are your sounding board. This is the first line of defense a new idea has to get past before too much work goes into it. They know you and your hot buttons and will call you out when you aren’t working up to your potential.
Your inner circle doesn’t take the place of learning and getting help in your business. Your inner circle might be more like your coworkers whereas your coach or teacher might be more like a boss or outside consultant. Both are important to success, but they fill different roles.
I created my inner circle by getting into a peer mastermind. After trying a few different formats, we got settled into a routine and now I plan many of my projects around this group. I get their feedback on big projects at each step of the way and commit to meet my deadlines during our meetings. You better believe I meet those deadlines too!
Do you have an inner circle? Who is in it? Are they the right people? Tell me about it in the comments.
Since most solopreneurs I know work from home, it makes sense to talk about home care even though it’s not strictly business. Your environment plays a huge role in how you feel, how much you get done and the quality of that work. One of the most common plagues of modern living is clutter. Although there are many types of non-physical clutter, I’m specifically talking about physical clutter here.
“Stuff” is relatively cheap now in terms of time, effort and money to acquire it. Relatively cheap postal rates are a boon for junk mailers. Magazines and newspapers take it upon themselves to subscribe you in order to pump up their circulation numbers. Add to that the normal upgrade cycle of all the various electronics devices and it makes for a lot of potential clutter.
Note that I called it potential clutter. All of the stuff that comes into your house has the potential to become clutter if left unchecked. Since the inflow is more or less ongoing, the mitigation needs to be ongoing as well. For years, I’ve cultivated the habit of continually decluttering. It’s something that happens casually throughout the day. If I buy a new pair of pants, I scan my existing pants to see what can be donated. If I’m putting something away and the cabinet or shelf seems crowded, I do a quick sweep to see what can go. I do a big yearly kitchen/pantry decluttering every winter.
Recently, I’ve adopted a slightly more formal approach that has been working great and has helped my business as well. I now declutter 15 minutes a day (props to flylady.net for the idea). One of the helpful things in this approach for me has been to use a wide definition of decluttering. It’s not just the “clean out the closet” tasks, but also putting everything back where it belongs. What’s great about this is that there’s never too much accumulation and there’s a set time to take care of it every day. When you practice 15 minutes a day of decluttering, you’ll find that most of the time you can put away anything left out in the last day or so and still have time to do real decluttering such as cleaning out closets, shelves and storage areas.
So how might this help your business?
It helps by taking something distracting off your plate when you are trying to work. If you go to an office outside of the house, it’s easy to leave home chores undone for the day since they are not right in your face reminding you. When you work from home, those tasks nag at you and may pull you from your work. There’s a certain pressure to feel like your house should always look good because you work from home, and this helps keep things tidy. By doing a little every day, you don’t have to try to find a huge block of time to do it later. If your house is in reasonably good shape, you’ve can’t procrastinate working in order to clean it. Having a clear space may help you concentrate or feel more focused. Knowing there’s a set block of time every day to do this kind of thing takes the pressure off. If I see an area that needs to be addressed, I know I’ll get to it eventually and it doesn’t hang over my head while sitting on my to-do list.
In invite you to join me in this daily practice and see how it improves your business. Many people make a new year’s resolution to get organized, and instead of that I suggest trying 15 minutes a day of decluttering. Tell me how it works for you in the comments.
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Burnout is a very real risk for solopreneurs. We wear all the hats in the business, and it’s so easy to just get caught up in the treadmill of never ending work. It’s easy to buy into the myth that if you just work harder somehow it will all get done. However, it’s simply not possible to ever get everything done. No matter how much you do, there’s always more you could be doing so the work is never actually done.
What you can do is set limits on how much you work and make good choices about what to leave undone. Otherwise, burnout is a very real possibility. Over the long haul, burnout can sap your enthusiasm for your work and leave you tired, worn down and unable to focus.
The long term effects are tragic, but what about the short term effects? Sure it’s fine to push yourself for a short while but working long hours and not taking time off has a very real risk in the short run. In the short run, not taking time off can cause you to temporarily lose focus. You might find yourself forgetting why you walked into a room, going to the store for 3 things and not being able to remember them, sleeping poorly or feeling lethargic. These minor effects might not seem too serious, but expanded into other areas of your life the lack of focus might mean you don’t pay attention while driving, miss appointments, or skip medications. These effects can be serious or even deadly.
One of the recurring themes I come across in my work is that business owners work too hard for it to be sustainable. As I’ve mentioned, a short push is okay but when you get into months of long weeks there are very real risks. Sometimes when I point this out, I get the impression that the other person thinks I’m patronizing them or trying to butter them up about being such a hard worker. The truth is when I see someone working too hard for their own health and safety I feel like it’s important to point it out. I feel like sometimes I spot it because I’ve done it to myself as well. I’ve never had a serious incident, but have had more than my share of absentmindedness due to burnout. Two people close to me have had car accidents because of burnout.
I talk about burnout and working too hard a lot. Please don’t think I’m patronizing. It’s a very real risk in the long run. If you burn out and leave your business, the world won’t get what you have to offer. You also put yourself and others at risk when you can’t focus. Take regular breaks, take days off and take vacations. Always remember that the work will never be all done.
Have you had burnout? How did it impair you? Share it in the comments, and tell me how you’ll prevent burnout in the future.
